How Much Time Should I Spend on Marketing?
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While chatting with a professional organizer about her blogging and social media strategy, she asked me how much time she should plan to devote to these activities. This is such an important question that I decided to answer it here on my blog.
To begin with, let’s look at marketing as a whole. Regardless of whether you’ve just become a professional organizer or you’ve been at it for years, and whether your organizing business is your full-time career or a part-time venture while you work at another job, attend school, or care for your young children, marketing is an essential activity that needs to be scheduled on an ongoing basis.
When you’re in the start-up phase of your business, you should be spending nearly all of your working hours on marketing activities. If your greatest priority is working with clients, and your available time slots aren’t filled, then you need to put forth every effort to filling them!
As your business grows, you will obviously need to cut back the time you spend on marketing so you can serve your clients, but never make the mistake of thinking you’re too busy for marketing. If you fail to keep promoting your business during busy periods, once things settle down, you may find yourself with no clients lined up, and back at square one again!
My recommendation is that you devote a minimum of 20% of your working hours to marketing your organizing business. By that, I don’t mean you should be spending 8 or more hours a week on social media alone. Websites such as Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn can be valuable marketing tools, but should not be your only resource.
People are much more likely to do business with you after they’ve had the opportunity to know, like, and trust you. Although this can be accomplished online, if your primary service is providing in-person organizing services in homes or businesses, or live training in the form of presentations, seminars, or workshops, you need to spend a good portion of your marketing time attending local networking events. Social media sites can then become a tool for staying in touch with the people you’ve met in person and for connecting with other people in your area that you can then invite to events you’re attending.
You might find it easiest if you set aside one day or two half-days for marketing every week. To make the most of this time, plan your activities in advance. On different occasions they may include attending business networking events, writing blog posts, creating and scheduling social media posts, engaging with others on social media sites, updating your website, and designing flyers or other materials.
As your business grows, it might become challenging to fit all of these activities into your calendar. When that happens, it may be time to think about delegating some of them so you can focus on what you do best!
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How much time do YOU spend on marketing?
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Great advice. Relationship building both in person and online. Don’t forget blogs as a social media tool, too.
I hesitated to include blogging in this post, because there are so many aspects that need to be worked into your schedule (research, writing, responding to comments, and so on) that I thought it might be better to save it for another time, but blogging should definitely be a key component of your online marketing strategy!
This is a really helpful guide on how to allocate time for marketing! I appreciate the emphasis on balancing client work with marketing efforts. Setting aside specific days for marketing activities makes it manageable and effective. Thanks for sharing these practical tips for growing a business!
Thanks for your comment – much appreciated!
I think this is good advice. I love marketing, so I enjoy the process, but I definitely spend a fair amount of time working on it. I used to do more in-person events when I was starting out, and it was helpful. Many of those options went away during COVID. One of them, that was a monthly in-person event went into a Zoom format, and I still do that one.
The more you invest in marketing, the greater the interest in your services will be. It’s important to be intentional with how much growth you want, and therefore how much time and money you need to invest.
And remember, just talking about your business with everyone you meet can be a great form of marketing!
Thank you, Seana! It’s true, the more people who know about your business, the better chance you have that one of them, or someone they know, will become a client. Many new business owners aren’t comfortable networking or talking themselves up, especially if they’re introverted, but these things are so important!
Great advice, Janet. I dedicate a bunch of time to marketing and am always looking for the right kind of help.
Thanks for reading and commenting, Diane!
I like how you distinguished how marketing efforts will shift depending on the point you’re at in your business.
For me, the most important part is marketing in various ways. It can’t be just one thing. And also being receptive to changing times. I’ve been at this a long time (over three decades.) When I first launched Oh, So Organized! social media didn’t exist. In the early days, my marketing efforts were more print advertising, networking, and snail-mail based.
I still mail out (snail mail) a quarterly newsletter to clients and the media, but I’ve added other digital communication through a monthly e-newsletter, blogging, and social media.
The other thing I learned early on is the power of PR. Having articles written about you, your business, offerings, and advice is another way to get great exposure, establish yourself as an expert, and market your business.
You’re right – PR is very valuable! I remember a couple of opportunities I had as an organizer after I was featured in the local newspaper and the Chamber of Commerce’s magazine; these would not have happened otherwise.
I agree that getting out, being involved, and being strategic work best in in-person marketing. When I started, participating in moms’ groups helped a lot with my business and my children’s play with other kids. Presenting to these groups worked nicely to show my expertise. While working with a client (sleep consulting for babies/parents), we found that online works when you reach out to Facebook Groups and engage with the issues parents are dealing with. This could also help with decluttering Facebook groups for Professional Organizers as well. Showing you know your stuff but being mindful not to overly advertise yourself in these groups is essential.
Many people have told me that moms’ groups worked well for them, and I imagine it’s true whether they’re in-person or online. Great tip about not overly advertising yourself! You risk being annoying or even getting banned if you don’t follow the group rules.
Oh I wish I would have known this when I first started. 9 years in and Im barely getting it. I finally decided to join a networking group and attend consistently and it’s been a life line for me. Thanks for being a guide.
Better late than never, right? I’m glad you’ve found a group that works for you.
When I first started my business, I heard that you should spend one hour marketing for every billable hour with a client. That’s probably what I did back then. Since then, I feel that technology has taken the place of some of the marketing I used to do. Instead of attending networking meetings, I spend time boosting my Google presence and posting on social media.
That’s one of many shifts we’ve seen over the past 10-20 years! Social media has evolved from a place to stay in touch with people we’ve met in real life to an excellent way to connect with a much larger audience. How much time should be devoted to offline vs online will depend on the nature of the business (virtual or in-person services) as well as the individual’s personality (I’m an introvert who has nearly always had more success online than in person).
I’m in my 24th year of business, and I definitely don’t invest effort in marketing the way I used to. In the first decade, I was “hungry” for clients; in the second, I definitely did more social media marketing than in-person networking, and this week marks exactly five years since I cut almost all non-speaking in-person marketing (networking, etc.) out of my schedule due to the onset of the pandemic.
However, I have realized that some in-person market can be energizing, and I decided to wade back in slowly. In the meantime, I’m trying to do a few bigger co-operative marketing efforts. In January, I did a speaking engagement, appeared on a colleague’s podcast, and have upped my involvement in an online, Zoom-based group. In February, I presented to a colleague’s client base. I don’t know how comfortable I’ll be with going back to indoor networking while COVID and flu (and the measles, for goodness’ sake!) are out there, but it’s definitely time to put more energy and inspiration into my marketing. Thanks for the reminder!
That’s an exciting shift, Julie! I’m actually going to an in-person event this month, something I haven’t done since long before the pandemic, and looking forward to it.